Bruins must seize opportunity to re-set

Tuesday

Oct 17, 2017 at 12:43 AMOct 17, 2017 at 12:47 AM

After a disappointing, and somewhat disorganized start to the season, the Bruins must work to take advantage of their upcoming four-game homestand.

It’s a bit early for a re-set, but the Bruins seem to need one. That’s not the worst news, since they’re not even two weeks into a six-month season, they’ve got a relatively light and seemingly favorable schedule just ahead, and it looks like their most important player, Patrice Bergeron, is finally trending toward a return to play from a lower body injury.

Of course, many of those things were said a couple of weeks ago, before the B’s stumbled to a 2-3-0 start despite that aforementioned light, favorable schedule, which resulted in consecutive losses to last season’s dead-last Avalanche, plus Sunday’s defeat in their first trip to Las Vegas, and overly optimistic projections for Bergeron’s return.

So what’s the difference now?

For starters, it can be presumed that all these rookies – five have played the past two games, two of them first-year pros – have had their eyes opened.

This is not Canadian Major Junior, it’s not the AHL, it’s not NHL preseason. This counts. Mistakes are exploited. If you don’t take care of the puck when it’s on your stick, or if you’re not in position when it’s not on your stick, that’s an error that can, at worst, contribute to a goal against, with lesser repercussions like penalties, lost possession and wasted scoring chances.

All were in play during Sunday night’s 3-1 loss to the expansion Golden Knights, where the B’s didn’t shoot enough to test a goalie they know to be beatable (a measly 44 attempts against former teammate/prospect Malcolm Subban, who had to stop only 22), and surrendered two goals in the last 5:22 of the second period, with novice NHLers involved each time: Sean Kuraly had the puck stolen from behind at center ice on Alex Tuch’s goal, and a line with two rookies (Jake DeBrusk, Anders Bjork) was first pinned in the defensive zone, then little help when Alex Shipachyov scored at the end of a scramble.

Not that veterans were exempt on Sunday, or that they have been through the first five games. Some might be off to decent statistical starts, but Brad Marchand (3-3–6, but with only 10 shots), David Pastrnak (3-1–4, but with only one actual shot that resulted in a goal) and David Krejci (0-4–4, but minus-4) would probably admit they haven’t been at their best.

What we’ve seen is a team that isn’t in synch, and that’s explainable: Head coach Bruce Cassidy’s first training camp was all but wasted before the 4-3, Opening Night win over the Predators was complete.

There were almost no gray areas about the lineup entering the first week of the season. Bergeron would be between Marchand and Bjork, Krejci between DeBrusk and Pastrnak (in other words, one rookie per line), and the Tim Schaller-Riley Nash-Noel Acciari fourth line was solid. The third line had to be ironed out, but there was no doubt veteran David Backes would anchor it, and also be an option to move onto one of the top two lines, if one of the rookies wasn’t ready.

On the blue line, Zdeno Chara was re-teamed with second-year player Brandon Carlo, Kevan Miller would mentor Charlie McAvoy, and Adam McQuaid just had to wait for Torey Krug to recover from the jaw fracture he sustained in preseason.

What happened? Bergeron made it through one full practice after a “maintenance day.” Backes was knocked down by diverticulitis. Acciari suffered a finger fracture in the opener that required surgery. Krug, who lost nearly the entire preseason, has returned, but is behind (minus-5 in four games).

Compile all that – plus a handful of rookies – and some disorganization is all but inevitable. It’s Cassidy’s job – and that of the longer-serving veterans, too – to make it fixable.

There are injury issues (Bergeron, plus McQuaid and Ryan Spooner, the latter two hurt on Sunday night), but that’s always the case in the NHL. The B’s have two days of practice ahead, during which Cassidy plans to reinforce some basic offensive and defensive principles. They’re about to play four straight home games, the first two against non-playoff teams last season (Vancouver on Thursday, the Sabres on Saturday). Through five games, they’ve seen things that work for them, and things that don’t.